Quantum computing in Europe is hot: following several IPO announcements and major investments, the next piece of news has arrived. Dutch company QuantWare has raised $178 million (approximately €152 million) in a Series B funding round. The round is considered the largest private financing of a dedicated quantum processor company in the world to date. Particular attention is drawn to the participation of In-Q-Tel, the venture capital arm of the U.S. ininformigence agency CIA.
What is QuantWare and what is being funded?
QuantWare was founded in 2021 by Matt Rijlaarsdam and Alessandro Bruno as a spin-off from the research institute QuTech at Delft University of Technology. The company develops, manufactures, and integrates superconducting quantum processors at an industrial level. According to its own statements, QuantWare has already supplied more than 50 customers in 20 countries and describes itself as the world’s largest commercial supplier of quantum processors by volume.
The fresh capital is intfinished to advance two central projects: first, the further development of the company’s proprietary processor architecture called VIO, and second, the construction of a new manufacturing facility named KiloFab, which is set to increase the company’s production capacity twentyfold.
How is the technology supposed to work?
At the center is the so-called VIO architecture, a modular system for quantum processors based on superconducting qubits. Qubits are the basic computational units of a quantum computer. Unlike classical bits, which take either the value 0 or 1, qubits can exist in multiple states simultaneously thanks to quantum mechanical effects such as superposition. This theoretically enables an enormous increase in computing power for certain classes of problems.
Superconducting qubits, as utilized by QuantWare, operate at temperatures close to absolute zero. Electrical circuits completely lose their electrical resistance under these conditions, which enables stable quantum states. The challenge lies in reliably connecting and controlling many such qubits without errors occurring or the sensitive quantum states collapsing.
QuantWare’s VIO architecture relies on a modular chiplet concept: individual processor modules are connected to one another, similar to Lego bricks. This is intfinished to facilitate scaling and reduce sources of error in packaging and wiring, which experts currently consider to be among the greatest bottlenecks in scaling superconducting systems. The latest model, VIO-40K, is designed for 10,000 qubits, which would represent a hundredfold increase over the current state of the art.
“In superconducting quantum computing, scaling is increasingly constrained by wiring, packaging, and manufacturability — not just qubit design. QuantWare recognized this early and developed VIO to address exactly that.” (Kike Miralles, Intel Capital)
The investors: from venture capital to the CIA arm
Both new and existing investors are participating in the funding round. The composition of the consortium is particularly noteworthy:
- In-Q-Tel (IQT): Arguably the most prominent new investor is In-Q-Tel, a non-profit venture capital firm founded by the CIA in 1999. IQT invests on behalf of the U.S. ininformigence community in technologies classified as strategically relevant to the national security of the United States and its allies. The participation in QuantWare signals the U.S. security policy interest in controlling critical quantum hardware supply chains.
- Intel Capital: The investment arm of semiconductor giant Intel is also joining the round as a new participant. Intel Capital states that it has invested more than $20 billion in technology companies over three decades.
- ETF Partners: The European sustainability venture capital fund is joining as a new investor.
- FORWARD.one, Invest-NL Deep Tech Fund, InnovationQuarter Capital, Ground State Ventures, Graduate Ventures: These existing investors are participating in the round again.
In-Q-Tel’s participation is not an isolated case in the quantum industest. The CIA-affiliated fund has invested in numerous technology companies in the past, including early stakes in Google and Palantir. In the field of quantum computing, the involvement underscores the strategic importance that Western ininformigence agencies attribute to the technology, particularly with regard to potential applications in cryptography and signals ininformigence.
“Quantum computing is at an inflection point and is a strategic priority for nations around the world. QuantWare has both the groundbreaking scaling technology in VIO and the necessary industrial capabilities in KiloFab,” declares J.D. Englehart, Senior Director at IQT.
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